After the birth of your baby

The postnatal coordinators are based in Basingstoke and Winchester hospitals. They receive details of your discharge home from the postnatal ward. If you have any queries or concerns, or if you feel you would like to be seen before your next booked appointment, please contact us as below.

If you have had your baby at home or at the maternity centre in Andover, you can expect the midwife to stay with you for about two hours after the birth. After this time, please contact the numbers above if you have any problems. 

If you have had an uncomplicated birth, you can expect to stay in hospital between two and 24 hours. If you have had a caesarean section, it is likely that you will be in hospital between one and two days afterwards. If there are any problems for you or your baby, you may need to stay longer in hospital. 

On the day you are planning to leave the hospital, a midwife will check that you and your baby are medically fit to go home. They will give you some paperwork to pass to your GP and Health Visitor and ensure your community midwife will be able to access your details on our electronic notes when they visit you at home. The midwife on the postnatal ward will talk to you about the arrangements for your discharge home and will give you any medication that you need to take with you. It is very important that you tell the postnatal ward midwife the correct address and contact details of where you will be staying when you leave the hospital. 

Following the birth of your baby, we advise that you start doing pelvic floor exercises. Our physiotherapy team have compiled a booklet called ‘How to do your pelvic floor exercises’ that is available on the Hampshire Hospitals’ website. Alternatively, please ask your midwife or health visitor for more information. 

You and your baby will have appointments with a midwife after you are discharged from hospital. This is to check that you and your baby are well and to plan for your care. Either a midwife or a maternity support worker (MSW) will provide your care, depending on your individual needs. This care will be provided to you either in one of the postnatal clinics in your area or at home. The MSWs have received special training to support women and to care for babies in the postnatal period. 

Newborn infant physical examination (NIPE)
NIPE is your baby’s first medical examination to check that they are healthy. It is done by a specially trained midwife or paediatrician within three days of your baby being born. Alternatively, we may ask you to bring your baby to a postnatal clinic appointment for this examination after you have left the hospital. 

When your baby is five days old, we will weigh your baby and ask for your consent to take a sample of blood for an NBBS (newborn blood spot) test, also known as the ‘heel prick' test. During this test, the MSW will collect spots of blood for testing onto a card from your baby’s heel. They will give you further information about the procedure and the conditions that the NBBS tests for. Your baby will also have a newborn hearing screening test (NBHS) around day five. The MSW will do this either at your home or in clinic and will explain the test to you in detail. You can read more about that test here Blood spot - GOV.UK (www.gov.uk)

You will have met your health visitor when you were around 36 weeks pregnant. We will invite you to have a discharge appointment with a midwife between 10 to 21 days (approximately) after you have had your 
baby. At this final midwifery appointment, we will aim for you to see your named midwife for continuity. 
If all is well, you and your baby will be discharged from midwifery care. If you see an MSW at the clinic or home visit on day 10 and all is well, then your discharge appointment may be done via a telephone call with a midwife or postnatal co-ordinator. 
We will give you information such as how to contact your health visitor, as well as details of local support groups. Your health visitor will then take over the care of you and your baby. 

Further information and advice
· Andover Maternity Centre: 01264 352517
· Association for Postnatal Illness (APNI): 
020 7386 0868
www.apni.org
· Birth Reflections (Hampshire Hospitals NHS 
Foundation Trust) 
Email birthreflections@hhft.nhs.uk for an 
appointment.
· Crysis (support with crying and sleepless 
babies): 0845 122 8669
www.cry-sis.org.uk
· DADPAD (guide for dads and partners 
developed with the NHS) 
www.thedadpad.co.uk 
· ICON (information about crying babies) 
www.iconcope.org
· Lullaby Trust (advice on safer sleep for 
babies): 0808 802 6869
www.lullabytrust.co.uk
· MUSH (social app for women 
recommended by NHS England) 
www.letsmush.com
· Registering a birth within Hampshire: 
0300 555 1392
www.hants.gov.uk/birthsdeathsandceremo
nies/births
· Smokefree Hampshire: 0800 772 3649
www.smokefreehampshire.co.uk
· Smokefree National Helpline: 
0300 123 1044
www.nhs.uk/smokefree

If you have any queries, concerns or need any help with feeding your baby, please speak to the PNC (postnatal co-ordinator), the midwife or the MSW (maternity support worker). You can find a lot more information about feeding your baby at the Wessex Healthier Together pages: Infant feeding :: Healthier Together (what0-18.nhs.uk).

You can find out about joining one of the virtual infant feeding workshops here

For advice about breastfeeding, please see your NHS leaflet ‘Off to the best start (unicef.org.uk). For advice about formula/bottle feeding, please see your NHS leaflet ‘Guide to bottle feeding (www.nhs.uk).